Stupid celebrity Hitler comments

June 20, 2011 3:04 PM

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Hank Williams' Monday Night Football song was pulled from ESPN after he said President Obama's golf outing with John Boehner was "like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu."

Hank Williams' Monday Night Football song was pulled from ESPN after he said President Obama's golf outing with John Boehner was "like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu."

Photo: Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images

Hank Williams' Monday Night Football song was pulled from ESPN... Photo-1647382.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Director Michael Bay just confirmed that actress Megan Fox was replaced in “Transformers:
Dark of the Moon” because she was quoted in the British
magazine Wonderland saying of Bay: "He
wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.” After that, executive producer
Steven Spielberg demanded she be fired, Bay said, according to a report in the U.K. Guardian newspaper. At the time, Fox's departure
was attributed to her desire to pursue other opportunities. Here are some other celebrities who made dumb
comments regarding Hitler and the Nazis. But first ... less

Director Michael Bay just confirmed that actress Megan Fox was replaced in “Transformers:
Dark of the Moon” because she was quoted in the British
magazine Wonderland saying of Bay: "He
wants to be like ... more

Now, here's British designer John Galliano on top of the world while looking a book dedicated to him on October 10, 1997 in London. That world crashed down around him in early 2011, after a video surfaced showing him insulting cafe patrons and declaring "I love Hitler." less

Now, here's British designer John Galliano on top of the world while looking a book dedicated to him on October 10, 1997 in London. That world crashed down around him in early 2011, after a video surfaced ... more

Photo: PAUL VICENTE, AFP/Getty Images

Now, here's British designer John Galliano on top of the world... Photo-1065277.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Here's Galliano arriving at a Paris police station for a meeting with witnesses to his rant on February 28, 2011. French fashion house Dior fired him on March 1.

Here's Galliano arriving at a Paris police station for a meeting with witnesses to his rant on February 28, 2011. French fashion house Dior fired him on March 1.

Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA, AFP/Getty Images

Here's Galliano arriving at a Paris police station for a... Photo-1065276.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Danish director Lars Von Trier was booted out of the 2011 Cannes Film
Festival after saying during a press conference for his movie "Melancholia"
at the festival: “I understand Hitler. But I think he did some wrong things. … I
am of course, very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel is a pain in
the ass. … Albert Speer, I liked. He was also maybe one of God's best children.
He had some talent that was kind of possible for him to use ... okay, I'm a
Nazi." less

Danish director Lars Von Trier was booted out of the 2011 Cannes Film
Festival after saying during a press conference for his movie "Melancholia"
at the festival: “I understand Hitler. But I think he did ... more

Discussing his Showtime series "Oliver Stone's Secret History Of America" on January 9, 2010, Stone said, among other things: "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply. We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good'. (Hitler) is the product
of a series of actions. It's cause and effect. People in America don't know the
connection between WWI and WWII. ... I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes, to
understand their point of view. You cannot approach history unless you have
empathy for the person you may hate." less

Discussing his Showtime series "Oliver Stone's Secret History Of America" on January 9, 2010, Stone said, among other things: "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply. We can't ... more

Later that year, Stone was at it again, not regarding Hitler, but the Holocaust. Asked in an interview why there was "such a focus on the Holocaust," Stone told the Times of London: "The Jewish domination of the media.” He later apologized. less

Later that year, Stone was at it again, not regarding Hitler, but the Holocaust. Asked in an interview why there was "such a focus on the Holocaust," Stone told the Times of London: "The Jewish domination of ... more

Photo: Jason Kempin, Getty Images

Later that year, Stone was at it again, not regarding Hitler, but... Photo-1065843.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Speaking on the Fox News show "Hannity" in 2009, singer and Playboy model Aubrey O'Day said: "Listen, I don't condone Hitler one ounce, but yes, he was a brilliant man. Can you guys say that he wasn't? He ran a country and convinced everyone of horrible things." In a statement to MTV News after the show, she re-emphasized that she didn’t support Hitler’s actions, saying: “What Hitler succeeded in doing was deplorable. And I hope we never see such an abusive use of power again.” less

Speaking on the Fox News show "Hannity" in 2009, singer and Playboy model Aubrey O'Day said: "Listen, I don't condone Hitler one ounce, but yes, he was a brilliant man. Can you guys say that he wasn't? He ran a ... more

Photo: Getty Images

Speaking on the Fox News show "Hannity" in 2009, singer... Photo-1065816.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Actor Kirk Cameron, best known for starring in the '80s sitcom "Growing Pains," has since become an evangelical Christian and, in 2009, linked Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to Hitler, saying: "You can see where (Hitler) clearly takes Darwin's ideas to some of
their logical conclusions and compares certain races of people to lower
evolutionary life forms. If you take Darwin's theory and
extend it to its logical end, it can be used to justify all number of
very horrendous things." less

Actor Kirk Cameron, best known for starring in the '80s sitcom "Growing Pains," has since become an evangelical Christian and, in 2009, linked Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to Hitler, saying: "You can ... more

Photo: Stephen Shugerman For Samuel Gol, Getty Images

Actor Kirk Cameron, best known for starring in the '80s sitcom... Photo-1065291.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer had to eat his words in 2002, after saying he believed Hitler went to Heaven.

Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer had to eat his words in 2002, after saying he believed Hitler went to Heaven.

Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer had to eat his words... Photo-1065278.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Actor Will Smith had to fight allegations that he called Hitler “good” in
2007, after Scotland’s Daily Record quoted him saying: "Even Hitler didn't
wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke
up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what
he thought was 'good.'" less

Actor Will Smith had to fight allegations that he called Hitler “good” in
2007, after Scotland’s Daily Record quoted him saying: "Even Hitler didn't
wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can ... more

Photo: Charley Gallay, Getty Images For Gucci

Actor Will Smith had to fight allegations that he called Hitler... Photo-1065275.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Formula 1 Management Chairman Bernie Ecclestone had to explain that he didn’t
support Hitler’s atrocities after telling the Times of London in 2009: “(A)part from
the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no
idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a
lot of people, able to get things done. In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a
very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was
going on and insisted, or he just went along with it.” He also said he preferred totalitarian regimes to Democracies. less

Formula 1 Management Chairman Bernie Ecclestone had to explain that he didn’t
support Hitler’s atrocities after telling the Times of London in 2009: “(A)part from
the fact that Hitler got taken away and ... more

Dutch singer Johan Heesters has long been controversial for his close links to his country's former Nazi occupiers and, in 1963, was booed off stage by audience members who stood up and gave Nazi salutes. Then, in 2008, he was quoted calling Hitler "a good guy." less

Dutch singer Johan Heesters has long been controversial for his close links to his country's former Nazi occupiers and, in 1963, was booed off stage by audience members who stood up and gave Nazi salutes. Then, ... more

Photo: MARCEL ANTONISSE, AFP/Getty Images

Dutch singer Johan Heesters has long been controversial for his... Photo-1065292.15567 - seattlepi.com

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That could explain this reaction outside Heesters' Febrauary 16, 2008 performance in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Protestors organized a counter-concert of works of musicians who died in Nazi concentration camps. The banner reads: "My grandfather was also in Dachau." less

That could explain this reaction outside Heesters' Febrauary 16, 2008 performance in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Protestors organized a counter-concert of works of musicians who died in Nazi concentration camps. ... more

Weightlifter turned actor turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger had some explaining to do during the 2003 California gubernatorial campaign when it came out that he expressed admiration for Hitler in unused footage for the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." His campaign ended up releasing a transcript in which the young Austrian said: ''I admired Hitler for instance because he came from being a little man with
almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good
public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't
admire him for what he did with it.'' less

Weightlifter turned actor turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger had some explaining to do during the 2003 California gubernatorial campaign when it came out that he expressed admiration for Hitler in unused ... more

The disclosure drew protests, but Schwarzenegger won the election. Photo-1065286.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Former "Saturday Night Live" star Victoria Jackson compared President Barack Obama to Hitler in 2009, writing: "Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas! Hitler did this. He killed the weak, the sick, the old, and babies
and races/religions he didn't like. Hitler also controlled the media.
(Where's the public debate between scientists on 'Climate Change/Global
Warming?') Hitler had the VW bug invented as the state car. What will
O's nationalized car be?" less

Former "Saturday Night Live" star Victoria Jackson compared President Barack Obama to Hitler in 2009, writing: "Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas! Hitler did this. He killed the ... more

U.S. President George W. Bush appeared to invoke Obama and Hitler differently when speaking at the Israeli parliament on May 15, 2008 in Jerusalem. Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and
radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong
all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed
into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have
talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to
call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been
repeatedly discredited by history." Obama accused Bush of launching a "false political attack." less

U.S. President George W. Bush appeared to invoke Obama and Hitler differently when speaking at the Israeli parliament on May 15, 2008 in Jerusalem. Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with ... more

Photo: GPO, Getty Images

U.S. President George W. Bush appeared to invoke Obama and Hitler... Photo-1065301.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Radio talk show host and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, in 2009: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, ruled by dictate" and "The Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo.”

Radio talk show host and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, in 2009: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, ruled by dictate" and "The Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo.”

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich responded to questions about loyalty tests for administration officials on June 13, 2011 by compared hiring Muslims to how Americans handled with Nazis in the 1940s, saying: "We did this in dealing with the Nazis. We did this in dealing with the Communists. And it was controversial both times and both times we discovered after a while, you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country. And we have got to have the guts to stand up and say, 'No.'" less

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich responded to questions about loyalty tests for administration officials on June 13, 2011 by compared hiring Muslims to how Americans handled with Nazis in the 1940s, saying: ... more

Of course, conservatives don’t have a monopoly on Nazi comparisons. In 2005, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said this after reading from an FBI report that included descriptions of detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings." Durbin later gave a tearful apology, saying: "I am sorry if anything I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust, the greatest moral tragedy of our time. Nothing, nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy. I am also sorry if anything I said cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military. ... I never ever intended any disrespect for them.” less

Of course, conservatives don’t have a monopoly on Nazi comparisons. In 2005, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said this after reading from an FBI report that included descriptions of detainee treatment at ... more

Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images

Of course, conservatives don’t have a monopoly on Nazi... Photo-1065279.15567 - seattlepi.com

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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN, refused to apologize after saying on the House floor earlier this year that Republican
arguments on health care were “a big lie just like Goebbels” (Hitler’s propaganda
chief) and “like blood libel” that led to the Holocaust. less

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN, refused to apologize after saying on the House floor earlier this year that Republican
arguments on health care were “a big lie just like Goebbels” (Hitler’s propaganda ... more

Then California Attorney General Jerry Brown (right) also invoked Goebbels in his
successful 2010 gubernatorial campaign against Republican Meg Whitman (left), saying: “Goebbels
invented this kind of propaganda. He took control of the whole world. She wants
to be president. That's her ambition, the first woman president. That's what
this is all about.” Brown later retracted the statement. less

Then California Attorney General Jerry Brown (right) also invoked Goebbels in his
successful 2010 gubernatorial campaign against Republican Meg Whitman (left), saying: “Goebbels
invented this kind of ... more

Then Chicago Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun (second from right) said she wasn’t trying to
compare rival Rahm Emanuel (left) to Hitler earlier this year, after she compared his TV
commercials to a character in the movie “The Producers” who believes Adolf
Hitler was a kind man. “The joke in it was, he was a kind man, a gentle man,” Braun
said of comments about Hitler in Mel Brooks’ satire, according to the
Chicago-Sun Times. “We are getting the kind man, the gentle man on television.”
Emanuel, who is Jewish, won the election. less

Then Chicago Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun (second from right) said she wasn’t trying to
compare rival Rahm Emanuel (left) to Hitler earlier this year, after she compared his TV
commercials to a ... more

Pope Benedict XVI, who was a member of the Hitler youth (a requirement
for young Germans at the time), compared atheists to Nazis in a 2010 speech in
the United Kingdom, saying: "Even in our own lifetimes we can recall how
Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate
God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who
were thought unfit to live. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist
extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God,
religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of
man and of society and thus a reductive vision of a person and his
destiny." less

Pope Benedict XVI, who was a member of the Hitler youth (a requirement
for young Germans at the time), compared atheists to Nazis in a 2010 speech in
the United Kingdom, saying: "Even in our own lifetimes we ... more

Photo: VINCENZO PINTO, AFP/Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI, who was a member of the Hitler youth (a... Photo-1065284.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber didn’t compare anyone to
Hitler. But he did compare his own hiding from media scrutiny by moving into
the attic of Jewish agent Mark Lepselter to young Anne Frank hiding in an attic
from the Nazis, saying: "it was like a reverse Anne Frank thing." less

Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber didn’t compare anyone to
Hitler. But he did compare his own hiding from media scrutiny by moving into
the attic of Jewish agent Mark Lepselter to young Anne ... more

Photo: Stephen Lovekin, Getty Images For Unicef

Former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber didn’t compare... Photo-1065272.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Speaking in 2010 about National Public Radio’s firing of
reporter Juan Williams for saying he gets "worried" and
"nervous" when he sees someone in "Muslim garb" on an
airplane, Fox News chief Roger Ailes said: "They are, of course, Nazis.
They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism." He later apologized
to the Anti-Defamation League. less

Speaking in 2010 about National Public Radio’s firing of
reporter Juan Williams for saying he gets "worried" and
"nervous" when he sees someone in "Muslim garb" on an
airplane, Fox News chief Roger Ailes ... more

Photo: Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images

Speaking in 2010 about National Public Radio’s firing of... Photo-1065300.15567 - seattlepi.com

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Aviator Charles Lindbergh was an outspoken opponent of American involvement in World War II and pinned pro-war activism on the Jews, among others. Speaking about a potential war, he said: "The potentially gigantic power of America, guided by uninformed and impractical idealism, might crusade into Europe to destroy Hitler without realizing that Hitler’s destruction would lay Europe open to the rape, loot and barbarism of Soviet Russia’s forces, causing possibly the fatal wounding of western civilization." This picture shows Lindbergh (right) and Sen. Burton Wheeler of Montana saluting the American flag at a rally to keep the U.S. out of the war, circa 1940. less

Aviator Charles Lindbergh was an outspoken opponent of American involvement in World War II and pinned pro-war activism on the Jews, among others. Speaking about a potential war, he said: "The potentially ... more